April 19, 2009
NYC Letter: More Soaring Oratory...
Day 89 of CHOPE
...from Mr. Obama. Here he is wowing the locals in Strausbourg, April 3, 2009:
Liberté ... [Blank.] ... [Blank.][A voice in the dark: Égalité!]
Absolute.
One out of three. Batting .333. Good enough for the majors, good enough for the presidency.
DUH MOMENT
Um...Ah...Not Exactly A Modern Day Cicero
View Video Here
[Hat tip: Carine]
Mr. Obama's drawing blanks distracts from his bigger blunder, the fallacious parallel itself. This is probably why he couldn't recall the French formulation -- Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité -- since it doesn't track, conceptually or structurally, to the American formulation -- Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. [Pause.] That and his complete lack of French.
Minor blunders decoy big blunders.
Funny thing about the hype. When it reveals itself as the hype it is -- say a vaunted orator who displays a slavish dependency on teleprompters (and cue cards), no talent for extemporaneity, an inability to recover, is oblivious to misspeaking the money quote, and makes surprising errors of fact (and this) -- there is only a damp fizzle because we never really believe the hype in the first place. We recognize these gaffes, errors, lapses as commonplaces in discourse, especially for someone constantly discoursing. Certainly small potatoes compared to the enormity of bankrupting America (and this).
[Pause.]
Unless, of course, you are Mr. Bush. In which case, anything less than Ciceronian discourse is damning evidence of ineloquence, muddle, stupidity.
CHOPE.
Liberté ... [Something.] ... [Something.]
Posted by Damian at April 19, 2009 11:45 PM"Errors of fact"...don't forget Obama's assertion that economics, like climate change, is settled, that there is no argument that Keynesianism is the complete answer to all our problems. Take that you Austrian economist knuckleheads.
Oh, wait, I'm sorry, it's the teleprompter's fault...like when Obama thanked himself for introducing himself.
Posted by: Duncan at April 20, 2009 03:03 PMSo, Mr. Obama is only the messenger.
We need to find the person who keys the message into the teleprompter. That is the dark power behind the throne. We can rule out James Carville, Paul Begala, Chris Matthews, and KO because they themselves are basket brains controlled by the teleprompter.
It is someone with a lot of time on their hands and who can type effortless reams of doublethink. Hhmmm. It's difficult coming up with candidates. Who on the left is mastermind caliber? Who on the left can type?
DGB
Posted by: Damian at April 20, 2009 07:27 PM
